The year is 2011. Researcher Peter Hedström has just finished his position as a professor at the University of Oxford and is about to become CEO of the Institute for Futures Studies in Stockholm, a role that will last for six years. During this time, he will have both the time and resources to build a new research initiative. It sounds very promising—at first.
"The more time I spent on it, the more I thought, 'If I'm going to spend this much time building a institute, I want it to at least have a chance to survive,'" recalls Peter Hedström, founder of IAS.
"Then I started looking around."
He was advised by the Director General of the Swedish Research Council to contact Helen Dannetun at Linköping University. This would later lead to the formation of the IAS. By 2014 it was up and running.
"When the opportunity arose to build up a research environment that was centred around my own research interests, it was almost irresistible," says Peter Hedström.
Thursday, 28 november, 2024. Professors, doctoral students, and employees from IAS gather on the sixth floor of the Museum of Work. Ten years have passed. The day will be celebrated with lectures from those who have been involved in IAS's history in various ways, along with coffee, mingling, photography, and ending with socialising—and a Christmas dinner. Peter Hedström feels extremely satisfied that the institute is now celebrating its tenth anniversary.
"Of course, there was a lot of uncertainty about whether it would succeed. To build a completely new, very internationally oriented activity in Norrköping—a place most people outside Sweden have never heard of—was a risk”, he says.
What are you most proud of over these ten years?
"That the institute has grown so strong in terms of research. Several have now been promoted to professors and there are a large number of international collaborations. I am also very proud of our doctoral education," says Peter Hedström.
He highlights that one of the reasons why IAS succeeded was that they managed to recruit a group of very strong doctoral students in the beginning.
